


This Christmas

by cymyguy



Series: 12 Days of Kagehina Christmas [5]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 12 Days of Christmas, Blind Date, Christmas, Christmas Dinner, First Christmas, Getting to Know Each Other, Ice Skating, M/M, Presents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 10:18:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cymyguy/pseuds/cymyguy
Summary: I present to you...12 Days of Kagehina Christmas!~“I don’t ice skate,” Kageyama said. With anyone else that would have been the end of the conversation, but of course he just had to be with Hinata today, and Hinata had an answer to everything.





	This Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> song: "This Christmas" - Lady Antebellum version

That’s what Kageyama got for putting it off.

Since he would be turning the dreaded 30 this year, and could offer no proof to his parents that he was at least in the way of being engaged by Christmas, in September they had taken matters into their own hands and started setting up marriage interviews. Kageyama did not want to spend the rest of his life (as sad and pathetic as it might currently be) with someone he would meet for the first time in a situation as awkward as a marriage interview. After the first two went as disastrously as predicted, he ordered them to cancel the rest of the interviews and find someone who would go on a simple blind date with him. An official date would be a much better way to meet someone, and he said that if things went well enough, they would take the next step, and so forth.

His parents were happy enough with that. They called each of the next interviewees in turn, but none were willing to gamble on their son for anything less than a serious, up-front intention to marry. None except the very last on the list, that is. Kageyama supposed that since this man had been placed in the bottom spot, he was not his parents’ highest hope, nor could he suppose him to be at all suitable to his own preferences.

Hinata Shoyo was already 30, and for it unbelievably short, with unbelievably natural orange hair. He was exactly none of the things Kageyama thought any partner of his might potentially be. He couldn’t say that their first date went any better than the two interviews, but yet he found himself on a second date, and then a third. Things did not improve. They went on a fourth date anyway.

And then, their sets of parents had come up with the brilliant idea of them spending Christmas Eve together, to assess their relationship from a festive standpoint. Hinata had immediately volunteered to play host, and Kageyama said not a word in argument, and this was how he had ended up here today, parking in front of Hinata’s squat apartment building on a very cold 24th of December.

“Hello Kageyama!”

He waved from the steps. Kageyama came trooping up the salted sidewalk, glowering at his feet as he could feel that big stupid grin on him. Hinata held the door and Kageyama stepped inside, reaching for the second door only to find it locked. He looked back at the redhead, and Hinata reached into his pockets, but his hands came out empty. His eyes got big for a moment. He tried to hide by smiling.

“I’ll be right back.”

Hinata went outside, and Kageyama could hear him knocking on a window. He came back in, still trying to smile, but they waited awkwardly for a minute until a tall, formidable neighbor came and opened the door.

“Thank you Aone-kun, and sorry to interrupt your holiday.”

The man only nodded.

“This is Kageyama-san.”

Aone nodded twice. Hinata was starting to blush, and quickly stepped ahead to lead Kageyama away.

“Thank you again, Merry Christmas!”

As they stepped up to the door at the end of the hall, Kageyama hoped that very abrasive buzzing wasn’t coming from inside. Hinata opened the door and shrieked.

“You’re burning things already?” Kageyama said, stepping in after him and shutting the door.

“It’s not burning,” Hinata said, “This is just what happens when I try to use the oven. I forgot that’s why I don’t use it.”

Hinata had grabbed a dish towel and was waving it underneath the smoke detector in the hall. Kageyama went into the kitchen, where he couldn’t see him, and peeked into the oven. The casserole or whatever it was didn’t appear to be burning, but it didn’t smell all that appetizing either. He moved around the table into the tiny living room. Hinata had strung lights all along the ceiling, and they were flashing at an obnoxious speed. His tree was next to the TV, weighed down with three different kinds of lights and a bunch of heavy ceramic Santas and elves. He had put tinsel around the TV and the lampshade and the windowsills; Kageyama could see all the places he had taped it. Everything was so incredibly tacky that Kageyama would have known he was in the right apartment even if Hinata wasn’t here.

“Do you like my sweater?”

Hinata had hopped into the living room to join him. He pressed something at the bottom of the shirt, and the lights dotting the big green tree flashed to life. Kageyama didn’t stop his eyes from rolling.

“You don’t like it? That’s so—Grinchy!” he accused. “ _Your_ sweater’s not even the appropriate colors.”

Kageyama’s reply was shut out by the smoke detector’s scream.

“I don’t get it,” Hinata shouted, brandishing his towel. “There’s not even any smoke.”

So began a game of stirring the contents of the oven until the alarm sounded again, at which Hinata would fly from the stove around the wall and reappear in the hallway to wave away the warm air. He resolved to shut off the oven and transfer the casserole into a pot to finish cooking.

But the oven was still hot, and Hinata went so far as to station a chair underneath the detector so he could sit while he fanned. He also had the food all but boiling on the stove, so as quick as he could he would bounce back over to stir it up. He never managed to get back in time to prevent the alarm sound. As Kageyama was watching him in another failed attempt, Hinata turned to him.

“Kageyama, would you mind helping with that?”

He tsked, but got up and went to the chair, whipping the towel off it and taking a seat. For the next twenty minutes he fanned at the detector nonstop. Hinata was furiously adding shakes of seasoning from various cans. Eventually, though, he took the pot over to the garbage can and dumped it out. When he turned he met Kageyama’s raised eyebrows.

“Don’t worry, I already got takeout. I’ll heat it up now.”

He clenched his fists, but allowed Kageyama to laugh in his face, before opening the fridge. Kageyama went to the end of the short hall to use the bathroom. When he tried to use the soap, nothing came out of the bottle. He picked up the container, which was cold to the touch. For some reason the contents were frozen and crystalized inside. Kageyama reached for the old bottle still on the counter, and wrinkled his nose when he touched the gunked up nozzle. His parents had told him to give Hinata a fair chance. Hinata, as usual, was blowing it.

The food wasn’t as good after being reheated, but Kageyama supposed it was much better than whatever the alternative would have been. As they were eating in silence at the table, the light above them flickered, then went out, along with every other in the house.

“Hey! Oh, shoot, did I forget to—No I paid that,” Hinata muttered to himself. Then he looked fearfully at Kageyama, whose outline he could see against the dim window. “I’ll go check the breaker.”

He hurried out. Kageyama continued eating, unsurprised but annoyed. The lights went back on, and Hinata came and announced too loudly:

“Got it!”

“Your outlets are probably overworked from all the lights you have up in here.”

Hinata was smiling. “I thought I was going to have to pull out the candles and make this really romantic.”

“I wouldn’t trust you with a candle in a thousand lifetimes.”

He shot him a scowl. “Well I wouldn’t want to be around you for a thousand lifetimes, one is bad enough, so I’ll keep my candles, thank you very much.”

Kageyama scoffed in his throat, but didn’t say anything else.

He requested the last eggroll, and Hinata looked like he had been slapped.

“But, you’ve already had one more than me.”

“Aren’t I your guest?” Kageyama said.

Though he grumbled for almost a minute afterwards, he immediately dropped the roll onto Kageyama’s plate.

When they had finished, and Hinata had taken the dishes and set them by the sink, Kageyama said:

“I forgot your gift in the car.”

“What?” He whirled around, pointing some dirty chopsticks at him. “We agreed to no gifts, you said no gifts was fine.”

“I _know_ , I wasn’t going to get you anything but my parents insisted it was proper.”

“Well my mother said that too, but—but I—”

“I’ll go get it. I’m not knocking on your neighbor’s window, so let me back in.”

Hinata grumped again. When Kageyama left, he flew to his bedroom and ripped the new jacket out of his closet. It was a really nice jacket, an olive color with cool pockets and a fleece-lined gray hood. It would make a great present, that’s why he had bought it for _himself_. His mother had insisted he buy something, but since he and Kageyama had already agreed to forget about gifts, he bought the jacket assuming he’d get to keep it. Instead he was folding it into some kind of roll and whipping out the wrapping paper. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he knew Kageyama was texting that he was a dumbass and to let him in.

“Be right there,” Hinata said even though he couldn’t hear him. He slapped some tape on the wrapping and hustled it out to the table. Then he went to get Kageyama.

“My mother made me get a gift too, so there you go.”

He waved at the shoddy package. Kageyama handed him a plain red bag with white tissue paper, then went over to the table. Hinata pulled out the paper and a pair of black ski mittens.

“Wow these are nice.” He set the bag on the table and slipped one on. “So warm. Thanks!”

When he saw Kageyama eyeing his package, Hinata remembered his woes. He sat nervously across from him.

“This—is big,” Kageyama said. Hinata just smiled and shrugged.

Kageyama tore through a section of the wrapping paper and folded it down. He pulled out the jacket by a sleeve, then stood up to hold it up properly. For a moment he was clearly surprised. Then his eyes narrowed, and he lowered the jacket and looked at Hinata.

“A size small?”

“Okay!” he wailed, standing and flinging the mittens onto the table. “I didn’t get you anything! My mom said I had to but since we had agreed to no presents I just got something that I wanted and was just going to keep it since I thought you wouldn’t bring anything. But I have the receipt still I think, so you can just exchange it for your size if you like that jacket, would that be okay? Or I’ll return it and get you something else, if you want—”

“No.” Kageyama shuffled out from behind the table and thrust the jacket at him. “Just keep it. You wanted it.”

“Then you can keep yours.” He snatched the mittens and held them out.

“Those aren’t going to fit me either, dumbass, I got them for your toddler hands.”

“Hey! Well, then, just return these for your size.”

“Just—keep it, keep it all. It’s easier that way.”

“But—But—No, I don’t want to, then I’ll be a gift in your debt. And wasn’t it your birthday? I didn’t get anything for that either. You can just—”

“I said no!”

Hinata blinked, and Kageyama took a silent deep breath.

“I—I got them for you, so just, keep them, alright? Put them to use. It’s fine.”

Hinata sighed dramatically. “Fine. Thank you,” he grumbled again. “And sorry.”

He pouted as he took the things back to his room. Kageyama started to get nervous as he looked around the apartment. What exactly was there to do now that they had eaten?

Hinata came back, and his flittering and hand wringing didn’t help Kageyama to cope.

“Um, you wanna watch something Christmasy on TV?”

Kageyama nodded once. They sat on the couch. Hinata flicked channels at an irritatingly fast pace, but Kageyama doubted there was anything on to interest him anyway. Whatever Hinata decided, he would pretend to be into, just so they didn’t have to _talk_. Talking had not been a strong point of theirs so far.

“Oh!”

Hinata was looking brightly at him. Kageyama was quick to pull his brow down into a scowl.

“You want some dessert? My grandma’s cookies,” he said quickly. “I didn’t help with them or anything. They’re really good, I promise.”

“Su—Sure.”

“They’re really good with hot cocoa, do you want some of that too?”

He shrugged.

“I’ll boil some water.”

Kageyama eyed him from the couch as Hinata put a kettle on the stove. He stood on his tiptoes to reach the cupboard above his head, sweater riding up a little on one side. He grabbed a container, opened it and set it beside Kageyama on the couch. He sat back down and they waited for the water.

Hinata suddenly burst out laughing at the TV, spraying cookie crumbs across the room. Then he started into a coughing fit, and Kageyama got concerned, only because it would look bad if Hinata died and his parents knew that Kageyama was the last one to see him in his apartment. He touched his shoulder blade, just with his fingertips, and tried to speak, but Hinata heaved out:

“I’m fine. That won’t be necessary.”

He pushed Kageyama’s arm back to himself.

“Whatever,” was all he could think to say.

“I think the water’s done.”

Hinata got up and went back to bustling in the kitchen. He couldn’t help a big smile as he presented the first mug to Kageyama, complete with a knitted cup cozy so that his hands wouldn’t be burned.

“Eat a cookie and then drink,” Hinata said. “It’s amazing.”

The swig of cocoa was strong, so thick it was almost syrupy. Hinata must have seen it on his face.

“Wait, wait—” He took the cup back. “Let me try again.”

Kageyama finished the cookie and waited again. Hinata handed over a new cup, less excited than determined. Kageyama sipped at it.

“Good?”

“Better.”

Hinata huffed, but returned to his seat with a mug of his own.

They were silent again. It might have been for five minutes, but Kageyama hoped it was more like twenty. Then Hinata said:

“What do you think of my house? It’s pretty homey, right? Would you—Do you think married people could live here together?”

He clucked his tongue. “We would have to discuss it.”

“Right. I know.”

Not that it would be much of a discussion, as what those had so far amounted to was heated arguments about whose parents were nosier or who was a less sucky cook, and Kageyama couldn’t think of any matter that was conclusive between them. They never got to the end of an argument. Hinata was so tiresome.

They continued to watch the Christmas specials, and each went to the bathroom several times just to break up the proximity. They mindlessly finished the entire tin of cookies. Nothing else happened, Kageyama didn’t even think the sun was moving outside. Then Hinata’s phone rang.

It was in his pocket, and he pulled it out and silenced it before setting it beside him. He glanced at Kageyama, shifting a little in discomfort.

The phone rang again. He gave a feverish look at the screen, then silenced it again.

Kageyama waited, and sure enough, it went off a third time. Hinata grabbed the phone and silenced it.

“I’m sorry, it’s my mom, would it be alright—”

“It’s not like we’re in the middle of a conversation,” Kageyama said, shrugging aggressively. “Go ahead.”

As Hinata was entering the shadow of the hall, a woman’s voice came screeching out of the phone, which he had apparently put on speaker.

“You two better have all of your clothes on or so help me Shoyo—”

“Mom!”

“If you said last week that you don’t think it’s going to work out then there’s no reason this week to be shilly-shallying, you know exactly how I feel about—”

A door slammed, and then Kageyama could only hear Hinata’s side of the conversation, muted and unintelligible, except for once near the end when he practically yelled.

“I’m thirty years old I think I can make these decisions for myself!”

Hinata came back and flopped onto the couch, face a darker shade of red than Kageyama thought was probably healthy.

It wasn’t his place to say anything, and Hinata only said

“Sorry—”

And couldn’t get any more out.

Kageyama stared at the TV and wished it was five o’clock. Was this the life he wanted for himself, using infomercials and bad movies to ignore each other until it was time to go to sleep? He already did that with his cat, and at least the cat wasn’t a dumbass, and his own apartment didn’t smell like a bad mix of too many Febreze flavors.

“So, um, did you have anything you wanted to do today? Like any Christmas traditions?” Hinata hurried to clarify.

“Um, no. Do you?”

He sighed. “No, not really.”

Then there was a giant gasp from the redhead, and Kageyama looked to see that his face had _broken_. Just when he thought this couldn’t get any worse, now he had made Hinata cry? But no, he was smiling, and it was because his eyes had gone so bright and glassy that they looked like they were shining with tears.

Kageyama didn’t like where this was going.

“We could go ice skating!”

He leapt to his feet. Kageyama fumbled with his tongue.

“What?”

“There’s a pubic rink just a few minutes away from here, and I bet no one will be there today. I should’ve thought of this a lot sooner,” he grinned.

“I don’t ice skate,” Kageyama said. With anyone else that would have been the end of the conversation, but of course he just had to be with Hinata today, and Hinata had an answer to everything.

“Oh come on, there’s nothing else to do, I can tell you’re bored sitting here.”

“I’ve never done it,” he said, even more stiffly.

“Well you can try something new, that’s what this whole thing we’re doing is all about, right? And it’ll be way better than hanging out here, you can tell your family you did something fun for the first time. Come on Kageyama, you’re supposed to do things that make me happy.”

“Why am _I_ the one making _you_ happy? I’m the one who didn’t get any gifts today!”

“You can’t hold that against me because you already said it was fine,” he declared.

“There’s nowhere to get skates on Christmas Eve,” Kageyama said.

“They keep some donated pairs in the warming house at the rink.” He seized his arm. “Now come on, I’ll lend you some gloves.”

“No Hinata.”

“Yes! I want to have fun with you and if you’re just going to sit here and refuse to then you might as well just go home.”

“You know our parents will be mad if I do that—”

“I know, and I’m going to tell them the truth, that you didn’t want to do anything with me and that I’m sick of forcing you to spend time on something you obviously don’t think is worth it. I’ll tell them it’s off.”

Kageyama swatted his hand away.

“You’re going to bail out just because I refuse to go fucking ice skating?”

“Yes because you’re making a big deal out of something just because I like doing it and you probably suck at it.”

“You don’t know that—” 

“If you can’t show a little willingness to please me then I’m not interested in trying to please you, and we should just call everything off.”

“Fine! I’ll go ice skating because you’re an idiot and because today is all about you.”

Hinata clapped his hands.

“Yeah! You have a scarf right? I’ll find you some gloves, and I’ll wear the toddler mittens. Didn’t you bring a hat? Don’t you even check the temperature like a responsible adult?”

“The temperature’s just fine for being indoors, that’s what I checked for.”

Kageyama was sorry that he had acknowledged their affinity for ties, because now Hinata had just won and he was being forced to drive them to an ice rink.

“It’s cold,” he said as soon as they got out of the car. Hinata had put on thermal underwear and sweatpants, and a sweatshirt under his coat. Kageyama didn’t have extra clothes.

“We’ll be moving around a lot, so you’ll be fine,” Hinata said.

They went into the warming house, a little shack of a building, and Hinata selected a pair of hockey skates from the shelves on the back wall. Kageyama hunted through them for something big enough, complaining all the while. Hinata only laced up his skates with a smile.

“I’m keeping my shoes on.”

“Kageyama that’s not ice skating.”

They had another argument, cut short when Kageyama grabbed the biggest pair and forced them on, content with the fact that Hinata would feel terrible when he developed blisters and had to hobble around afterwards from the pain.

Kageyama held onto the wooden wall of the rink, as Hinata slide out onto the ice. After his initial momentum died, however, the redhead didn’t move anymore.

“What are you doing?”

“Just—getting my bearings.”

“Why are we doing this if you’re not even good at it?” Kageyama said.

“I am good, I just told you I’m getting my bearings. It’s been a little while, okay?”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re Yuri fucking Katsuki,” he muttered under his breath, as Hinata pushed off and started his jerky way across the rink.

Kageyama let go of the wall and shuffled experimentally. This would be easy with shoes on, he could visualize the motions he would make, so how hard could it be with some skates? He turned one ankle and gave himself a push. His front skate caught, and he jerked his weight back, overcorrected, and crashed onto his ass and elbow, pain shooting up his shoulder from the attempt to catch himself.

“Ohhhh Kageyama that looked bad!” But his cackles rang across the rink. “That was exactly like in a cartoon, I should’ve videoed that.”

“Shut—up!”

He was going to crawl across the ice and kill him. Hinata must have sensed it, because he scooted farther away, arms spread comically for balance.

“Keep trying,” he called over his shoulder.

But Kageyama went back to the wall, and didn’t leave it again. He made slow circles around Hinata, one hand always on the wood. He didn’t have to wait long for Hinata to fall, and then again, and again. He was hardly better than Kageyama, for it being his first time. Kageyama laughed at first, but after a while he just watched silently as Hinata got up and inevitably started again. There were a few pretty spectacular but pretty hard falls that he found himself wincing at.

Eventually he got too cold to enjoy the spectacle anymore.

“Hinata I’m freezing my ass off!”

“That’s because you’re standing around.”

The redhead skated over to him, running into the wall to stop himself.

“Come and skate if you’re cold, idiot.”

He latched onto his arm. Kageyama tried to pull away.

“Get off me.”

“Come oooon, we’re supposed to skate together as a couple.”

“I don’t want you dragging me down with you, you’ve probably gotten three concussions since we got here.”

“Kageyamaaaa—”

He tugged on his arm. Kageyama shook him off, and let go of the wall.

“Just keep your hands off me.”

“Okay okay. Let’s go straight across.”

Kageyama’s choppy, stiff-legged pace was manageable for Hinata, so he looked effortless in comparison, which didn’t do much for Kageyama’s spirit of fun. He only dared to look up from his feet once, and saw that they had made it half way.

“See, if you would’ve been trying this whole time imagine how much you would have improved by now.”

They hit a rough patch of ice, and Kageyama wobbled.

“Waaah, careful—”

Just for a moment he felt Hinata’s mitten on the small of his back.

As he went down Hinata tried to grab his arm and save him, but they both fell, and since Kageyama’s arm was occupied his butt took all the force. Hinata’s arms were still loosely encircling his, as the redhead whimpered weakly.

“I broke—my tailbone,” Kageyama said.

“Me too.”

“You’re paying my medical bills since this was all your stupid idea.”

“It’s—It’s not my fault you’re a total klutz—”

They eased themselves to their knees. Kageyama stayed there, feeling the pain thrum up through his back. Hinata got to his feet, and tried just a little to help him. They edged over to the side and Kageyama led the way along the wall to the warming house. It was a good thing he had no feeling left in his feet, or he might have cried. He could barely untie the skates, it took him several minutes with Hinata watching and waiting, but Kageyama would rather be out here another two hours than ask for help.

He slipped on his shoes and left the laces alone. They went back to the car, and he drove to Hinata’s building.

Kageyama didn’t get out of the car after him. When Hinata noticed, he startled, and ran up to the driver’s side before Kageyama could put it in reverse.

“Hey!”

Reluctantly, he rolled down the window.

“You’re leaving? You could come in and have some more cocoa and warm up first. I could get us some icepacks for our butts.”

“We were together long enough for it to count as the day, weren’t we?” Kageyama said.

“Well yeah, probably, but at least let me nurse you or your family will think I’m really cold toward you.”

“That isn’t necessary.”

Kageyama knew not to roll up the window yet, because Hinata never let a conversation drop at its natural stopping point.

“I guess you won’t be back anytime soon,” the redhead said.

“I guess not, if you don’t want to invite me.”

“Wait, you’ll come back if I invite you?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t think it went that poorly.”

Hinata raised his eyebrows.

“I already knew that you’re a disaster, so nothing surprised me.”

“And I already knew that you’re impossible to please.” Hinata grinned.

“Then—it’s fine,” he muttered.

Suddenly Hinata started to adamantly beckon him closer. Kageyama frowned. Hinata repeated his motioning, with a very intense look, so Kageyama leaned out the window, glancing around to see if something was happening. He felt warm lips, dry and cracked, against his cheek.

“Your cheeks are ice cold!” Hinata crowed, probably to distract from his red face. “You should come inside.”

“I’m fine.”

“Okay, well, have a good rest of the holidays. Maybe I’ll see you on New Year’s or something?”

Kageyama shrugged.

“Um—Thank you for coming.” He bowed aggressively. “Merry Christmas.”

He bowed his head back. “Merry Christmas.”

Hinata gave a little wave, then went into the building.

Kageyama didn’t remember to roll up the window until he was halfway home.

**Author's Note:**

> next fic coming December 16


End file.
